Walsall Vs City Sept 14th

A welcome result today but by christ league 2 football is painful to watch. Another fairly tedious game this afternoon which gave us possibly the worst penalty miss i've seen at City. There is a clear pattern emerging in that our keeper has his confidence back, the two centre backs continue to look solid every week and the front two always have a goal threat in them. But jeez that midfield continues to look poor every week, only Connolly came out of today with any credit. Cooke offers more in 20 minutes than Palmer and Devine do in 70 and Pritchard looked way off the pace. Hopefully Cooke and Connolly will start to have more influence as they get their fitness up to speed. I think our season will be full of games like today where the result could go either way with a scruffy goal to win it.

 

10 games into the season and I still have no idea whether we're promotion contenders or just a bang average football team. It's difficult to say as the games have been decided by such fine margins.

Anything from 5th to 15th would not shock me one bit.

 

Hats off, mate!

 

Well that's 2 of you who think that. Kudos to you both.

 

Oh stop being a drama queen. Of course we are promotion contenders. Be patient.

 

Possibly. I have yet to see anyone who is female carrying a bag set off a flare or smoke bomb at a City away match. I assume that is your point. It is difficult for someone who is watching the match to pinpoint who the culprit is. I think City need someone in the away end - usually to the right of the stand, recording proceedings. The idiots setting off flares won't be caught otherwise.

 

Gómper

 

Wouldn’t CCTV show who set it off?

 

My little boy likes it when they let one off. Granted that at 11 he's probably the same age mentally as the lads that set them off though.

 

I said stop being a drama queen. Clearly you can't.

 

I think you're being one yourself.

It's only a predicition mate. If you think we're nailed on for a top 7 finish then fair enough.

 

There's probably more but there's no 'agree' button to give posters the opportunity.

 

I suppose it'll depend on how thorough the searches are: last year at Shrewsbury they did look in my shoulder bag; this year at Crewe they were patting down people, but when I got to them all the 'searchers' had someone and I (with the shoulder bag) was told to just pass on through. Thus at Shrewsbury I could have had a flare tucked in my trousers, at Crewe a number of them in my bag...

I don't know that club fines will do anything, as that won't necessarily hurt those who set off the flares. If they can actually catch the culprit(s), then a criminal conviction plus a personal fine and a stadium ban would be a good start. But what would really get noticed, I think, is escalating points deductions. Was Crewe the first instance this year? I can't remember. But, if that was our one bite, then after today, 3 points deducted. If it happens again, 6. A third time, 9. Would anyone be so thick as to try it on for another time? A promising season could very quickly be turned into a relegation one. Now that would hurt, both club and supporters. Perhaps it might stop these morons.

(I realise one might get mischief-making supporters infiltrating the away end just to bring about such deductions, so it's by no means a perfect solution.)

RCB

 

It’s never going to be pretty to get out of this league. The players are not good enough, all the pitches are tight and stadiums compact.

It’s a slog with team going physical rather than technical.

As long as keep picking up points we will be up there. There is no one really consistent yet who you would maybe expect at start of season.

We have the ability to grind out results and that will be key as the season goes on.

 

No problems at Barnsley when they had the sniffer dogs...all about costs though isn't it, can't afford to Police or steward the games at lower league league level. Although saying that, biggest Police attendance I've seen in years was at Grimsby this season and still flares got in!!

Prefer a straight leg jean cut these days myself. I'll get me blouson now.....

 

We have to start playing much better and start controlling games though, we can't expect to win 1-0 every week.

 

How much control will we get away from home at this level?

 

I don't think we've had control in any game, home or away apart from 20 minutes last week. Even Oldham ran rings round us at times. I can see why bowyer prefers 433, it would allow us to actually compete in the midfield but its just a shame our options in that area are so poor. Cooke hopefully will make a difference when he starts next to palmer, but I've got a feeling we'll be back to 433 on tuesday against a side strong at home and who again play 3 in the middle.

 

Fairly easy to spot by their choice of clothing. Funny how “ultras” haven’t moved on in the fashion stakes like the rest of normal people. Or has Stone Island progressed from market trader stalls now?

 

Tuesdays match at Cheltenham is going to be much like this was - tight, touch and go and probably with the same physicality. I can't see it being the league two version of Barca v Real Madrid. Its all about picking up points and winning however that comes.